A FORMER Welsh Conservative leader has hit out at the sentence handed to former AM Simon Thomas.

Former Mid and West Wales AM Simon Thomas was yesterday, October 31, handed a 26-week jail sentence, suspended for two years, after previously admitting three counts of 'making' indecent images of children.

During sentencing at Mold Magistrates' Court on Wednesday, the judge said Thomas had no previous convictions and there was no evidence of making or distributing indecent images, only possessing them.

The 'making' charge relates to the downloading and possession of the images.

More than 600 indecent pictures and videos of children were found at the former Plaid Cymru AM’s home.

Thomas had pleaded guilty to making 94 still and 56 moving images of category A, the most serious, 87 still and 16 moving images of category B, and 354 still and five moving images of category C.

Thomas must sign the sex offenders register for the next seven years.

Former Welsh Tory leader, and Assembly member, Andrew RT Davies said: “Given the public outrage over the leniency of this punishment, I have today written to the Attorney General and the Crown Prosecution Service to see what mechanisms are available for review.

“To me, the punishment handed down to Mr Thomas seems absurd given the severity and horrific nature of the crimes.

“It is my understanding that this will sadly fall outside of the remit of the Attorney General, which shows there is an anomaly in the system and begs some serious questions as to why this was dealt with at a magistrates court.

“This was not a victimless crime – far from it. Mr Thomas’ actions has only served to fuel the demand in this horrific trade and to escape with a slap on the wrists seems all the more outrageous.”